Bankers will permanently leave the industry

Workers in the banking sector will permanently leave the industry as redundancies continue to replace hirings by around two to one, a report has suggested.

In an analysis of the industry, Reuters pointed out that 29 banks had cut roughly 160,000 jobs since early last year. These cuts were prominent in Europe, Asia and the US, and were a particular blow to Britain, where this sector makes up a tenth of the economy.

In the past few months alone Swiss Bank UBS announced that it would be making an additional 10,000 cuts after initially claiming it would be making 3,500 people redundant last year. It said this was as a result of a 40 percent profit drop in the first six months of the year as a result of “costly blunders”.

At the time, a recruitment agent told ChannelBiz UK that this would not only have an affect on the lives of these workers but also on job seekers who had lesser skills, with many redundant bankers taking on lower level jobs.

In its analysis, Reuters also pointed out that fewer of those leaving the banking industry would be able to find equivalent jobs at rivals. It quoted head-hunters and bankers, which said only a small proportion of those were qualified to move into other jobs at hedge funds, for instance, which look for specialised, skilled traders.

Earlier this month ING also announced that it would be cutting 2.5 percent of its 94,000 workforce with cuts thought to affect 1,350 jobs at its European insurance operations and 1,000 at commercial banking.

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